Snippets
by EmeraldWings1992
Summary: It takes a special girl to catch the attention of Miles Edgeworth, and Amanda Brooks might be just that girl. A oneshot, starting from when Edgeworth first meets Brooks, an idealistic soldier, through each subsequent meeting after that, leading up to "STARC" the first story Brooks appears in.


**A/N:** Hey guys! Here's a quick oneshot, featuring one of my new OCs, Agent Amanda Brooks. Those of you reading my other story, _STARC_ , where she first appears, knows that she's a US Marshal… but she wasn't always. And yes, Amanda is a love interest for Edgeworth. They'll have… and interesting relationship, to say the least. Each part takes place during a different year, so I'll put which year.

Now… ONWARD!

…

Part One ~2014~

Miles Edgeworth hated the shooting range. The loud noises hurt his ears, the flashes from the gun muzzles blinded him, and the sound was too close to the bang he heard every night in his dreams.

But, he didn't have a choice. Both the victim and defendant frequented this shooting range, and if he were to conduct a perfect investigation, he'd have to put his own weaknesses aside.

That was the von Karma way, after all.

He stood near the entrance as Detective Gumshoe walked to each man, pulling them from their station and sending them to Edgeworth to interrogate. After each questioning, that man would walk back to his station.

It was when there was a pause in between people to question that Edgeworth turned his attention back on the Detective. He was standing behind a young woman, trying to get her attention. With a sigh, the young Prosecutor made his way over.

The woman must have been about nineteen, though she was tall for her age, reaching Edgeworth's 5'10". Her blond hair was pulled back into a high ponytail, not a strand out of place, and the black, racerback tank-top she wore showed off the defined muscles in her arms and shoulders. Completing the look was a pair of cargo capris, a hoody tied around her waist, low on her hips, a pair of sneakers, and the large pair of safety headphones and glasses.

She was standing at one of booths, her back ridged straight. Her feet were braced shoulder length apart, with the right foot being just an inch in front of the left. She held her handgun easily in her right hand, bracing the butt with her left, and shot rapidly at the target in her lane. As she ran out of bullets, she unloaded the empty magazine, letting it drop to the ground, and grabbed a new one from the table next to her, reloading it and continuing to shoot, all in one smooth movement.

"Whoa…" Gumshoe muttered, sounding impressed. Even the usually stoic Edgeworth had to agree.

The woman emptied one more clip into her target and stopped, turning on the safety lock of the gun before putting it down. She pulled the headphones down, letting them rest on her shoulders, and studied the target as it moved along the track, coming closer.

A countless number of bullet holes riddled the center of the target.

"Impressive," Edgeworth said. The girl snapped around with the efficiency of a soldier. Her hazel eyes looked him up and down once before she relaxed slightly.

"Can I help you, ruffles?" she asked. Edgeworth scowled at that.

"I'm here to question everyone about Mr. Bull," Edgeworth said coolly, crossing his arms. "I'm prosecuting his case."

"Ah, a prosecutor. Wait." She studied him once more, before nodding slightly. "Now I recognize you. From the papers. Edgeworth, right?" she asked. Another scowl crossed his face. He knew what the papers said about him.

"Yes. And you are?" he asked.

"Private Amanda Brooks," she said.

"As in private investigator?" Gumshoe asked.

"As in army," Edgeworth said. _That explains a lot,_ he thought, glancing from the gun on the table, to the target, to the woman's perfectly straight posture.

Edgeworth asked Amanda a few questions before moving on, satisfied when she didn't really know anything about the crime.

However… he found it hard to forget about her in the subsequent days.

…

Part Two ~2018~

Miles Edgeworth had changed quite a bit in the past four years. He held himself with a new type of confidence, one born from doing the right thing as opposed to his previously flawless win record. _That man_ had helped him change, and he'd forever be grateful to him.

However, he also loved Europe. It was going to be hard to leave here once he was fully done his work.

Shaking those gloomy thoughts from his mind, he entered a small cafe and walked up to the counter, ordering his usual. He then took a seat and opened his laptop to get some work done.

He looked up as the waiter came over, taking his tea with a muttered thanks. As the waiter walked away, he noticed another familiar face in the café.

She definitely looked different since he'd last seen her. Rather than the ponytail with a hair not out of place, her blond hair hung limply around her shoulders. A tea sat next to her, untouched, and she was staring at her hands rubbing them together as though to get something off of them.

Suddenly, she dove into her bag and pulled out a wipe, scrubbing at her already clean hands. Edgeworth watched her, surprised at the change that had seemed to happen to Private Amanda Brooks.

Unable to stifle his curiosity, Edgeworth stood, walking over to the girl.

"Blood… blood… I gotta get the blood off…" Amanda muttered to herself as she scrubbed at her hands. Edgeworth quirked an eyebrow and glanced at her pale hands. They were a little red from the force of her scrubbing, but otherwise perfectly clean.

"Private Brooks?" he asked. The woman jumped, turning and looking up at the man.

"Ah. Prosecutor Edgeworth. It's been a while," Amanda said, shoving her hands under the table. From the movement of her arms, it was easy to tell that she was still scrubbing at them.

 _Obsessive-compulsive behavior?_ Edgeworth wondered, but didn't ask.

"How have you been?" he asked.

"Fine." Her answer was short and final, shutting down any opportunity to ask more. "How have you been?" she asked.

"Good," Edgeworth said. He wouldn't be deterred from his line of questioning though. "What are you doing here though? As far as I knew, we didn't have troops stationed in London."

"We aren't. I'm on leave." Her arms finally stopped moving. A moment later, she reached up and grabbed her tea cup. Edgeworth nearly winced at how raw the skin now looked.

 _On leave by herself and unwilling to talk about what's happened. Obsessive-compulsive behavior to the point of near self-harm,_ Edgeworth thought, quickly linking two lines of logic.

"Something happened. Something traumatic," he said. Amanda winced slightly, her eyes trailing to her hands. "Something that got blood on your hands."

"Yes," Amanda muttered, putting the cup down. "This was my first tour. And… well, we got into a battle." Her shoulders hunched. "It was my first time on the front line. Bullets were flying everywhere, but… I couldn't bring myself to shoot back. It's one thing to shoot at a target, or shoot to injure, but… these were other human beings. That we were shooting to _kill_." Amanda gripped her tea cup.

"Suddenly, one broke into our ranks. He was about to shoot my comrades. I had no choice but to pull the trigger, and—" she cut off. Her hands shot to her bag. Realizing what she was about to do, Edgeworth caught them. She looked up at him in surprise.

"If you scrub your hands anymore, you'll make yourself bleed," he said, not letting go. Amanda looked down, breaking the eye contact.

"I just… there's so much blood on them… I-I need to clean it off," her voice shook. Edgeworth frowned at that, realizing that killing someone, even to protect her comrades, truly traumatized her.

"There is no blood on your hands," Edgeworth said firmly. He knew it wouldn't fix her fully, but hopefully it would snap her out of it this time. Amanda looked up at him. He slowly turned her hands so that the palms were facing up. "See?" Amanda looked down, took a shaky breath, and nodded, gently pulling her hands from his grip and folding them on the table. Edgeworth nodded.

"I've resigned from the military," she suddenly said in a quiet voice. "Dad's gonna be so disappointed… but I just… can't follow in his footsteps if it means killing people."

"That makes sense. I'm sure he'll understand," Edgeworth said. Amanda looked up at him for a moment, before smiling weakly.

"Would you like to join me?" she asked motioning to the empty chair across from her. Edgeworth hesitated a moment, before nodding.

"Sure. Let me get my belongings," he said, walking back to his table. He gathered his things, then walked over and joined Amanda, who proceeded to ask him what he was doing in Europe. He smiled weakly, deciding to start from the beginning.

…

Part Three ~2026~

Miles Edgeworth paced in his office impatiently. _This is ridiculous! How dare they have the audacity to make me wait, rather than simply tell me who and where the witness is? We don't have time for this. The trial is_ tomorrow! _And where are they? Incompetent, the lot of them!_ He thought furiously, his anger directed towards the LAPD.

Apparently, The Rivales Family had made a hit on a business man. There was only one witness, the one he was currently waiting for, but the LAPD had stonewalled him when he attempted to talk to the person. Even the ever loyal Gumshoe seemed unable to tell him anything.

Just then, there was a sharp knock on his door. He strode over to the door and threw it open.

"About ti-" his voice died as he saw who was on the other side.

Standing tall, her hair back in a tight ponytail, was Amanda Brooks. She wore jeans and a tee-shirt under a leather jacket, but it was the badge hanging from her neck that caught his attention.

It was the badge of a US Marshal.

"Good evening, Prosecutor Edgeworth. Are you going to invite us in?" she asked with a smile. Glancing behind her, Edgeworth spotted a skittish looking man. _My witness?_ He guessed, stepping aside.

"Er… Brooks…" he greeted uncertainly.

"Agent, now," she supplied.

"Yes, of course," he nodded, motioning for them to sit on the couch. "Tea?"

"Please," Brooks said, while the witness nodded. Once they were settled, the three got right to business.

It was clear to see that Brooks had found her calling. She was protective over the man, helping him through the harder parts, and reassuring him that she'll keep him in the witness protection program, keep him _safe,_ even after the trial.

Edgeworth noticed, however, that when he and the witness were going over the testimony, Brooks still pulled a wipe from her pocket and rubbed it against her already clean hands. It wasn't the frantic scrubbing he had witnessed in the café eight years ago, but it was still something she couldn't help.

Finally, they finished for the night, and Brooks drove the witness back to the hotel he was staying in. Edgeworth organized his notes for the next day, and was getting ready to return home himself, when there was another knock on the door. Confused, he opened it and was surprised to find Amanda Brooks on the other side.

"Agent Brooks. Everything okay?" he asked, stepping aside to let her in again. She smiled weakly.

"Er, yes. I just… wanted to thank you for all those years ago," she said, stepping in to let him close the door.

"Whatever for?"

"I was lost. I didn't know what I was going to do, where I was going to go… anything. And you were right." She looked down at her hands. "My father was completely understanding. Before talking to you that day, I had just… planned on staying in Europe so I wouldn't have to face him again. I wanted to run away."

"Running away is never the answer," Edgeworth said, knowing that quite personally himself. Brooks smiled, looking up at him.

"I know. You helped me see that," she said with a warm smile.

"So… the Marshals?" the man asked. Brooks laughed.

"Going on two years now. And it's just what I wanted." She sighed happily. "I'm able to protect people who need it, without have to kill to do it."

"I'm glad you found a way to be happy," Edgeworth said sincerely.

"Thank you. Here," she handed him a business card. "In case you come across a witness who's in danger."

"Thank you," Edgeworth said, looking down at the card. His eyebrow quirked at the two numbers on it. "Your cell?"

"It's my personal one. I guess you can call just to talk, too," the woman said with a smile, heading to the door. "Good luck tomorrow in court, Prosecutor," she said before walking out, leaving a confused Edgeworth standing in the middle of the office, still holding the business card.

Before the door fully closed, another woman slipped in. This one was shorter and younger then Edgeworth, wearing a dark blue and pink skirt suit, with long black hair, bright green eyes, and an impish grin.

"Kay," Edgeworth said, roughly shoving the card into his pocket as he greeted his Legal Aid.

"Who was that?" Kay asked in a sing-songy voice.

"An old colleague," Edgeworth said, walking past her and grabbing his jacket from the coat stand next to the door.

"Mhm. Seems like she wants to be more," Kay said, holding up the slightly crumpled business card she had just pick-pocketed from him. Edgeworth glanced over and huffed. Kay, meanwhile, was reading the card.

"'US Marshal, Amanda Brooks. Oooo…. She's even highlighted her cell number," the girl teased.

"What?" Edgeworth asked, quickly looking over. Of course, the cell number wasn't highlighted. But that reaction was enough to make Kay burst out laughing.

"You like her!"

"Do not!" the now flustered Edgeworth countered. "I was just… surprised I hadn't noticed!"

"Uh-huh. Sure!" Kay teased. Edgeworth rolled his eyes, trying to ignore his assistant as she walked behind him, singing "Edgeworth and Brooks, sitting in a tree! K-I-S-S-I-N-G!"

…

Part Four ~2027~

Edgeworth couldn't believe this. He had just been made Chief Prosecutor a few months ago, just before pulling some strings to get Wright reinstated by the Bar, and now they were dealing with a bombing of a Government facility.

Murders were one thing, but this… This was another thing entirely. The government was leaning all of its weight on the Prosecutor's building to come to a swift guilty verdict, but of course, Wright's subordinate, Mr. Justice had taken the case. If this was anything like the last time the government wanted a swift conclusion, the Tobaye case, Edgeworth knew that wasn't going to happen.

Just then, his phone began to ring.

"Chief Prosecutor's Office," he said, answering it. He listened for a few minutes, his eyes growing wide, before he stood.

"And Detective Fulbright didn't catch this?" he demanded, knowing how capable the detective was. Or… used to be, if these past few cases were any indication of his slipping competence. He nodded a few times, dread, and something a little darker, filling his chest.

"Alright. Get him medical help immediately. But… make it look as though you're taking him to the morgue," he said, before hanging up. He then pulled a slightly crumpled card from his pocket.

' _US Marshal_

 _Amanda Brooks_

 _Phone: XXX-XXX-XXXX_

 _Cell: XXX-XXX-XXXX'_

He quickly dialed her cell number and waited. A few minutes later, the woman on the other end answered.

"Hello, Agent Brooks. This is Miles Edgeworth. I think… I have a new witness for you."

He listened for a moment before explaining the situation to her. They decided to meet at the hospital, and hung up.

The drive to the hospital didn't take long at all, but Brooks still beat him there, waiting.

"They had to induce a coma," Brooks said to Edgeworth's unasked question, using a wipe to clean her hands. "He was deprived of oxygen, and his lung had been pierced. They couldn't risk him waking up until they were sure he was out of danger. Thankfully, the suit saved his life…"

"That makes sense," Edgeworth sighed.

"That also means there's no way you can expect him to testify," Brooks said. Edgeworth shook his head.

"I wasn't going to. I suspect he was attacked by the Phantom."

"The Phantom?" Brooks asked.

"An international spy. We don't know what else to call him. This is the second time he's bombed that same Space Station," Edgeworth explained. "The police thought, at first, it was a prosecutor by the name of Blackquill, but this proves that it wasn't."

"So even if he was awake, you wouldn't make him testify, because this Phantom is likely to still be at large."

"And if not him, one of his associates," Edgeworth confirmed. Brooks nodded.

"Don't worry. I'll take good care of Mr. Terran," she said.

…

Part Five ~2030~

Edgeworth stepped out of the hospital room, shaking his head at the antics of Kay. He was happy that Robin had pulled through and would have a good home with Kay. It was all the boy ever deserved, to be honest. And, not only that, but they had finally found the truth of his parents' murder. Despite everything, a good day.

"Mr. Edgeworth," a cold voice suddenly said from behind. He turned to see Agent Amanda Brooks walking over to him. Since she had taken Clay into the Witness Protection program, he and Amanda had called just to talk to each other, even gone out every few weeks for tea or dinner. It was something akin to a romantic relationship, except they both had agreed that work had to come first. Going by her expression, it was clear this was one of those times.

"Agent Brooks? Can I help you?" Edgeworth asked in confusion. She gave a curt nod, leading him away from Robin's hospital room.

"Why didn't you call me?" she demanded as they walked.

"Excuse me?" Edgeworth asked.

"About Mr. Trio. As soon as you found him, you should have called so that I could enroll him in the Witness Protection program. He fit all of the criteria," she explained. Edgeworth frowned a little at that.

"Excuse me, but I feel that should be up to my discretion since he was in my care and that of my subordinate," he said coldly.

"And what exactly made you think putting him in the Witness Protection program would be a _bad_ thing, considering he _witnessed_ the death of his parents, and he needed _protection_?" Brooks demanded.

"If he had gone into the system, we would never have found the truth of his parents' death," Edgeworth said.

"And while that would be tragic," she started sarcastically, "he also wouldn't be in the _hospital_!" She shook her head, snatching a wipe from her pocket and scrubbing angrily at her hands. "The truth. That's all you care about, isn't it?"

Edgeworth actually stopped, staring at her. This was the first time someone got mad at him for searching for the truth (unless, of course, the truth looked bad for that person).

"What do you mean?" he asked, watching her scrubbing hands.

"You put that mission above all else—"

"Of course. It's the most impor—"

"Including above human _life_ ," she spat, cutting him off. Edgeworth fell silent. "Life seems to mean nothing to you when it comes between you and the truth, and that's _wrong_. After all, the truth doesn't benefit the _dead_."

Edgeworth gently reached forward, gently catching Brooks's hands as she began to them raw.

"You'd be surprised," he said softly. "But I see where you're coming from," he added in a humbled voice. "Perhaps I should have called you when I first found Robin. I'm sorry for my ere in judgement."

Brooks looked up at Edgeworth, shocked that he actually apologized. Then she remembered she was supposed to be mad at him and crossed her arms, looking away with a huff. "It's fine."

Edgeworth smiled slightly at that.

"Look, I'm free tonight. Let me take you to dinner to make up for it," he said. Brooks looked up at him, before smiling slightly.

"Alright, Miles," she said, before walking away.

…

 **A/N:** The end! That last part happens right at the end of _Yatagarasu's New Beginning_ , by the way!


End file.
